Courthouse Center for the Arts Screening (6/16 Rhode Island)

La Americana at the Courthouse Center for the Arts! Click Here to find out more about this event.

Related Press: Review: Cinematic Stories from Latin America Elucidate Common Ground

By Jonathan Beebe/Special to the Independent

Excerpt:

WEST KINGSTON – In this month’s R.I. International Film Festival encore series, the Courthouse Center for the Arts gives us three films hailing from Latin America. Although language is the only feature holding these selections together, all three films are strong in their own right, with one of them being my favorite from this past year’s RIIFF program.

The centerpiece of the evening is the 65-minute documentary, “La Americana,” directed by Nicholas Bruckman and co-directed by John Mattiuzzi. The film follows more than a year in the life of Maria del Carmen Rojas, a single mother trying to make ends meet in New York City. Of course, if that was all that was going on in Carmen’s life, the film wouldn’t hold interest for very long. What makes her unique is the fact that her daughter, Carla, is living with her mother in Bolivia and Carmen is living and working as an illegal alien. What’s effective about the film is the way it not only gives this neglected woman a voice, but also shows just how common her story is for many struggling in the US.  Click Here to Read Entire Article